Trump Administration Files Anti-Union Brief in Janus Case

The Trump administration Justice Department has formally told the U.S. Supreme Court to kill union “agency fees” for public workers who are in union workplaces but not union members, effectively making every state and local worker in the U.S. a potential “free rider.”

If the court agrees with Trump and the anti-worker National Right to Work Committee in Janus v AFSCME District Council 31 – and unions expect it to do so – that would convert every state and local government into a so-called “right to work” shop. The committee, a right wing corporate front group, recruited a dissenting Illinois worker, Mark Janus, to be its front man in the case, which the justices will hear next year.

Federal data show unions have approximately 6 million state and local government worker members, and represent another 900,000 people who, like Janus, are in union shops but are not members.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka blasted the Trump government’s stand. “While President Trump boasts his support for working families, his administration is advocating a position in the Supreme Court that disregards decades of settled law and threatens our livelihoods. Yet again, his actions are failing his rhetoric and making clear he has no intention of following through on his commitments to working people.

“For more than 40 years…the law recognized unions and employers have the freedom to negotiate agreements under which everybody contributes his or her fair share. But now the Trump administration is urging the court to reverse this precedent and undermine working people and unions. This is a shameful political payback to reward those who seek to do working people harm. Arguing against our freedoms at work is not what working people expect of our government. Actions speak louder than words Mr. President.”

The court’s 6-3 majority legalized the agency fees in the 1975 Abood decision, but the Trump Justice Department faults that. Like the right-to-work crowd, the Justice Department says Abood violates workers’ constitutional freedom of speech rights by forcing them to pay agency fees for union speech they disagree with.

Agency fees cover only costs of contract bargaining and enforcement, such as grievances. But the Trump government’s brief retorted that when it comes to the public sector, everything is political and thus covered by the 1st Amendment’s freedom of speech clause.

“The decision failed to apply to collective bargaining the principles of free expression and free association it properly held prohibit coerced financial support for political candidates. Abood thus ultimately endorsed what it simultaneously prohibited: Compelled subsidization of union speech for political or ideological causes,” Trump’s Justice Department said.

“The decision relied on an empirical assumption – that exclusive representation in the public sector” by the union of the workers “requires mandatory agency fees this court has since rejected,” its friend-of-the-court brief says. Rejections came in two more recent cases, involving smaller groups of public workers, whom the justices said were semi-public instead.

The justices let the government file the friend-of-the-court brief. The Justice Department is not part of the upcoming argument of the case. But the justices may pay attention to this brief, anyway. That’s because the court tied 4-4 last year on the identical Friedrichs case.

“In any other circumstance, it would be outrageous to demand the benefits of a com-mon enterprise without paying one’s fair share. Union representation is no different. Eliminat-ing fair share fees protects people who want to get something for nothing and as a result, starves unions,” Economic Policy Institute attorney Celina McNicholas said in a blog.

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Next up in our series that takes a deeper look at each of our affiliates is the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Name of Union: National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC)

Mission: To unite fraternally all city letter carriers employed by the U.S. Postal Service for their mutual benefit; to obtain and secure rights as employees of the USPS and to strive at all times to promote the safety and the welfare of every member; to strive for the constant improvement of the Postal Service; and for other purposes. NALC is a single-craft union and is the sole collective-bargaining agent for city letter carriers.

Current Leadership of Union: Fredric V. Rolando serves as president of NALC, after being sworn in as the union's 18th president in 2009. Rolando began his career as a letter carrier in 1978 in South Miami before moving to Sarasota in 1984. He was elected president of Branch 2148 in 1988 and served in that role until 1999. In the ensuing years, he worked in various roles for NALC before winning his election as a national officer in 2002, when he was elected director of city delivery. In 2006, he won election as executive vice president. Rolando was re-elected as NALC president in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Brian Renfroe serves as executive vice president, Lew Drass as vice president, Nicole Rhine as secretary-treasurer, Paul Barner as assistant secretary-treasurer, Christopher Jackson as director of city delivery, Manuel L. Peralta Jr. as director of safety and health, Dan Toth as director of retired members, Stephanie Stewart as director of the Health Benefit Plan and James W. “Jim” Yates as director of life insurance.

History: In 1794, the first letter carriers were appointed by Congress as the implementation of the new U.S. Constitution was being put into effect. By the time of the Civil War, free delivery of city mail was established and letter carriers successfully concluded a campaign for the eight-hour workday in 1888. The next year, letter carriers came together in Milwaukee and the National Association of Letter Carriers was formed.

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